Astrology and Horoscopes

Question:

If a person shows his/her hand to a
palmist, his/her 40 days' prayers are not accepted. Does this also apply to the
case of someone only casually reading a horoscope?

Also, back in school, I thought only believing in palmistry was forbidden in
Islam. And I didn't know that your 40 days' prayers are not accepted if you show
your palm to someone. So, out of ignorance, I showed my palm to a girl who
claimed to know palmistry. I did it just for fun (and not because I believed in
it). When I got to know about the punishment, later on, I offered nafil-i-tauba
and sought Allah's forgiveness for the same. Will I be forgiven (since it was
something I did out of ignorance)?

Answer:

Palmistry, fortune-telling etc are acts
which are absolutely abhored and forbidden in Islam.

The degree to which these acts are forbidden could be grasped from the fact that
the one who does the fortune telling has been classified as a kafir.
Similarly, the one who believes in what the fortune teller says has also been
mentioned to be a kafir.

Thus we can see the severity of these acts and we can understand that showing
the hand to the palmist is completely forbidden, regardless of whether one
believed her or not.

Now, if one showed the hand or read the horoscope INTENDING to accept what was
to be told, then the salah of that person for the next forty days would go
unrewarded ie. the salah would not have to be repeated, but no reward would be
accrued for it.

And if one did believe the fortune-teller or palmist, then the hadith clearly
mentions this person to be out of the fold of Islam.

As for your showing your palm to that girl, it was wrong to do so, but as you
did repent we hope that Allah Ta'ala would forgive you for it.